Albion in the Community receives £5,000 donation from award-winning Sussex pub
Albion in the Community (AITC) has received a £5,000 donation from a popular local pub.
Customers and staff at The Bull in Ditchling have been busy raising money for AITC since the December launch of a new long-term partnership between the charity and award-winning pub.
A discretionary donation of £2 was added to food bills throughout the festive period, and funds were also raised at a busy community Christmas carol night. Profits from ticket sales from The Bull’s new year’s eve party were also donated directly to AITC.
The total raised so far is £5,000 and, with the AITC’s regular football sessions for people with a disability costing between £2,500 and £5,000 a year to run, the donation from The Bull is certainly a welcome boost.
Supporting local good causes is something The Bull has embraced since current owner Dominic Worrall took over in 2003. Since then the pub, which has previously been voted Great British Pub of the Year, has raised more than £60,000 for charity and staff will be looking to continue their support of AITC throughout 2019.
Mr Worrall, who recently visited AITC at the American Express Community Stadium with The Bull’s general manager Molly Raftery to find out more about the charity’s work, said: “We’re overwhelmed by the support given to this fundraising initiative by our customers and so proud of our amazing team for getting behind it and helping us to reach this fantastic total.
“AITC has been very supportive and the work it does using football as a force for good for so many people across Sussex has inspired us to keep fundraising.”
AITC now runs more than 30 sessions for people with a disability, and also provides free weekly football and mentoring to young people living in areas of deprivation; in total the charity worked with more than 40,000 people across Sussex in 2018.
Lynsay Josephy, AITC’s corporate fundraising executive, was clear how important support like that received from The Bull is to the charity. She said: “It is fantastic to be working with The Bull and it has been great to see the enthusiasm with which staff and customers have already shown their support for our work.
“Having seen how much support The Bull has given to good causes in the past I fully expect the partnership to go from strength to strength over the coming months. To get off to such a brilliant start is amazing.”
AITC is also keen to hear from other local businesses who would like to support its work in 2019.
For more information on how you can work with AITC, email: fundraising@bhafcfoundation.org.uk.
Or to find out about future fundraising events at The Bull, visit: www.thebullditchling.com.